Category Archives: legislation and legislatures
“Harry Reid Winks at Revisiting Filibuster Reform”
“Rand Paul Does Not Go Quietly Into the Night”
“Senate Democrats Threaten To Reignite Filibuster Reform”
TPM: “Senate Republicans have unleashed a string of filibusters since the rules reform deal, which did not change the 60-vote threshold, and was enacted in January. They include the first-ever filibuster of a secretary of defense nominee (Chuck Hagel),… Continue reading
Conference: Under the Influence? Interest Groups, Lobbying, and Campaign Finance
The Baldy Center at SUNY Buffalo is sponsoring a conference this Friday and Saturday, March 8 and 9, 2013 on the interaction between lobbying and campaign finance. Michael Halberstam of SUNY Buffalo Law School is the lead organizer of… Continue reading
“Has Power Tipped in Favor of the High Court?”
Amanda Becker has written this piece for Roll Call, which begins with comments made at yesterday’s Supreme Court oral argument in Shelby County about Congress.
The article discusses my soon to be published Southern California Law Review article, End of … Continue reading
“Lobbyists fear shakedown if Supreme Court lifts campaign contributions cap”
Dems Lose CA Supermajority in State Legislature
“Congressional staffers often travel on tabs of foreign governments”
WaPo:
More and more foreign governments are sponsoring such excursions for lawmakers and their staffs, though an overhaul of ethics rules adopted by Congress five years ago banned them from going on most other types of free trips. This… Continue reading
“The Federal Common Law of Statutory Interpretation: Erie for the Age of Statutes”
Abbe Gluck has posted this draft on SSRN (William & Mary Law Review). Here is the abstract:
Modern statutory interpretation is a field dominated by court-created legal presumptions. Federal judges have created hundreds of default rules that range from subject-specific… Continue reading
“Congress’s committee chairman push to reassert their power”
Important, extensive WaPo report:
The overarching demand is for “regular order.” which is congressional speak for how things are supposed to work — at least how things used to work. Their hopes are straight out of the old Schoolhouse Rock… Continue reading
“Data Mining is New Lobbying Gold”
Byron Tau for Politico:
A congressman gets an earful from his neighbor after church about a tax bill. A senator suddenly finds old high school classmates calling her about an upcoming vote on a small business bill.
Those meetings… Continue reading
“For Democrats in G.O.P.-Led House, a New Congress Means Some New Muscle”
NYT: “After more than two trying years in the political wilderness, House Democrats who gathered here for their annual retreat are starting to appreciate a new political reality that few of them expected: They matter.”